Food ambassador offers healthy eating advice

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Kids in Bowling Green got a lesson on eating healthy and where food comes from an ambassador for a celebrity chef.

Clyde “C.J.” Miller paid a visit to the Boys & Girls Club of Bowling Green, and brought bags of fruit for the kids.

Miller recently graduated from the culinary arts school at South Central Kentucky Community and Technical College. He is a Food Revolution Community Ambassador for Bowling Green, a position that is an offshoot of the former ABC show, “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.”

Miller told the Daily News in Bowling Green that kids need to know the importance of eating well and exercising.

“Anybody got good recipes using apples?” he asked the children during the visit.

The kids gave examples, including apple cider. Miller told them how to make sure they have a good apple.

“It’s not soft, and make sure you rinse them off” before you eat them,” he said.

Six-year-old Yurionna Utrera tried a nectarine for the first time during Miller’s visit.

“I don’t like it. I love it!” she said.

After sampling apples from a blue bag given to each child, the kids tried grapes and blueberries.

“Grapes are 100 percent water. They’re known to be the oldest fruit around. They can be traced back to biblical times,” Miller said.

He told them that blueberries are one of the only fruits you can freeze and they won’t get mushy.

Elijah Starks, 7, enjoyed Miller’s presentation.

“Nectarines are good, and I ate the whole apple,” he said. “You have to stay healthy so you can play sports good.”

Yurionna said she plans to grow up to be a chef or beekeeper.

“Fruit is usually healthy,” she said matter-of-factly. “It keeps you from being sick. You need fruit every day.”

Miller plans to go back and talk about vegetables as well as teach children ages 10 and up how to cook healthy meals.

“Children’s health is in the most drastic situation right now,” he said. “This generation is the first to have a life expectancy less than their parents. I really want that to change.”